THE DERATING MENACE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 91, 19 April 1933, Page 6

THE DERATING MENACE.

Not satisfied with having got rid of the graduated land, tax, and in face of the fact that they have an army of unemployed working for their benefit at the expense of the wage-earning masses of this' country, landed proprietors are now demanding that they should be relieved of the obligation to pay rates in counties. Of course if the demand is once conceded it will be followed by another demand, equally justifiable, to derate land wboroughs, inasmuch as such a step would at once add fuel to the slumbering embers o jealousy as between town and country. But I do not propose to follow up that phase ot the question just now. The object of this letter is to point out something of which our friends and masters, Messrs. Landowner, Mortgagee and Company, have said nothing. county franchise is based on a rating qualification. None but ratepayers is entitled t® vote in counties. Every person of the fu age of twenty-one years whose name appears on the ratepayers' roll is entitled to vote, and if the ratable value of his property 13 not more than a thousand pounds he has one vote; if the ratable value exceeds a tliousan pounds, but does not exceed two thousan pounds, ho has two votes; and if the ratao value exceeds two thousand he has three v "? Moreover, the county ratepayer has tnes votes in every riding in which he has proper}, and as a county may have as many as twel* ridings, it is theoretically possible for man to have thirty-six votes in a coun^ ' I point out the foregoing facts because 1 advocates of derating have so far remaine silent concerning them. Are we to understan that the scheme means that county ratepaye are to be relieved of rates while still retainin o the fantastic county franchise? ' Wellington. P. J. O'REGAN.